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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29990715">stay beautiful</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebestestcactus/pseuds/thebestestcactus'>thebestestcactus</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>No Fandom, Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(wtf how do i tag), Gen, Magical Realism, OH MY GOSH THIS IS SOO CRIIIINGGEEE, Pain, TW: Suicide, despite all the tags the story itself isn't that graphic, not beta'd so whoever's reading pls have mercy, okk... how the HECK DO I FORMAT, pls, so i don't expect anyone to read this HAHA, this was for an english assignment, tw: abuse, tw: bad writing, tw: exploitation???</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:33:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>928</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29990715</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebestestcactus/pseuds/thebestestcactus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An English assignment that I decided to put here.<br/>This story deals with the issue of gender norms. </p><p>(Title taken from Jamie's "Stay Beautiful")</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>No Romantic Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>stay beautiful</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The woman had always lived an ordinary life. She had an ordinary childhood, an ordinary job, and an ordinary retirement life. She lived in a suburban place, safe from the hectic life of work and drama.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>She had only wanted a glass of water, in the middle of the night. But as she was returning to bed, she heard a knock.</p><p>“Who could that be, at this ungodly hour?” she mused.</p><p>The woman shuffled over to the door and creaked it open.</p><p>“Hello?” she called out to the dark.</p><p>There in the night, stood a silhouette. The woman couldn’t tell if the figure was a man or a woman.</p><p>The person stepped into the light. The man, she decided, was… extremely handsome. Or beautiful. Or gorgeous. No words could possibly describe how they looked. It was difficult to illustrate what their features were, as they would seem to shift from one face to another, becoming increasingly beautiful by the second. To her, they looked like a mixture of her late husband and one of those female models she saw on the television. She couldn’t remember her name, her mind spun at their beauty and her mouth gaped at them.</p><p>Dark eyes observed her. Carefully, the person asked her, “May I stay for the night?” For goodness’ sake, even their voice was attractive.</p><p>She shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold. “Y-yeah, come in.”</p><p>They smiled brightly in thanks. <i>How is it so sunny in the middle of the night?</i> She sighed and walked back inside with them trailing after her.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>The next morning, the man was still there. She decided to call them the Shifter, as their features would change from one to another.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>In the afternoon, she took the Shifter out for shopping for clothes. The woman was someone that loved dresses; she had no need for pants.</p><p><i>Though</i>, she mulled, <i>the Shifter would look wonderful in that blue dress I have.</i> She shook her head to rid her head of the thought. <i>A man with a dress! How absurd!</i></p><p>A voice pulled her out of her thoughts.</p><p>“Are you this person's guardian?”</p><p>“Huh? No, bu-”</p><p>“Great, he’s coming with me.”</p><p>
  <i>What?</i>
</p><p>The model scouter dragged the Shifter into a black van with bodyguards surrounding it.</p><p>“Wait!” she called, but the scouter didn’t hear her. From then on, she didn’t see the Shifter for a very long time.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>As the van pulled up at a very tall building, the Shifter was promptly ushered out of the car and into the said building. Everything was a rush there, but when people gazed upon the Shifter, they dropped everything in their hands and stopped what they were doing.</p><p>“Come along, we don’t have all day,” the scout called. The Shifter hurried after him.</p><p>The scout introduced him to his boss, which proposed a contract about modeling. The Shifter wasn’t too sure about it, but they felt happy. <i>I can show myself to the world, and they can see who I am</i>, they thought.</p><p>The people at the company promised the Shifter fame, money, and happiness, but slowly, they saw through their lies.</p><p>They put them under and dissected them and patched him up, stripped them of their clothes, left them naked in a cell, and after figuring out they had no need for food, they took away all that elicited a reaction from them. They treated the Shifter as if they were an animal, a doll, or a test subject. They seemed to forget that the Shifter had emotions, too.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>As the months passed on, the woman saw the Shifter on billboards, on the television, on all sorts of media. But something was off.</p><p>The Shifter had slowly turned dull, or ugly.</p><p>The Shifter was reportedly in good health since they didn’t need to eat, the doctors had said. But their hair, their beautiful skin, their sparkling eyes, now lacked their shine and now settled on a lackluster color. Their features shifted between what people deemed as “ugly”. Their movements were sluggish and didn’t have the step of confidence an attractive person would have. Even so, they continued to let themself be dragged along.</p><p>They were approaching their breaking point; the Shifter themself could feel it.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>The next day, as they were finishing up a photoshoot at the top of a building, the Shifter walked towards the edge of the roof.</p><p>Nobody noticed. Nobody cared much for the shifter, apart from the fact that they were “healthy” and put on a pretty face.</p><p>They neared the edge.</p><p><i>Why must they only put me in just pants and a shirt?</i> the Shifter thought. <i>Why can I not wear beautiful dresses like the lady at the house or style my hair however I want?</i></p><p>A strong gust of wind blew against the Shifter.</p><p>They let themself flow with the wind. They toppled off the edge, with a smile on their face. <i>Finally, this is all over.</i></p><p><br/>
</p><p>People mourned the Shifter, or rather, the idea of them. They mourned that they no longer had a beautiful cover of their magazine, and they mourned they no longer had a plaything.</p><p>News articles and TV buzzed with the word of their death. Some were relieved, others were disappointed at the lack of a beautiful face on the screen.</p><p>But as the woman stood over their grave, she felt shame and guilt for not extending a hand, for not even trying to help.</p><p>Tears dripped down her face. “God… if you’re out there… please… never, <i>ever</i>, let this happen to anyone else.”</p><p><br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR AND TOTALLY DIDN'T SKIP I GIVE KUDOS FOR BEARING THROUGH MY TERRIBLE WRITING SKILL AHAHAH</p><p>please immediately click off, this isn't worth your time :)))<br/>*coughs* kudos and comments are much appreciated *COUGHS*</p></blockquote></div></div>
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